What’s the Best Air Purifier for Bacteria and Viruses?

Bacteria and viruses can cause illness at any time, and when one person in your family becomes sick, others are often soon to follow. Pathogens can easily move through a home’s air supply, causing transmission of illness even when the sick person was quarantined in a bedroom alone! Stop this from happening, and protect your family’s health by purchasing the best whole house air purifier for bacteria and viruses for your home.

How Bacteria and Viruses Spread in a Home

Bacteria and viruses are microscopic organisms that spread illnesses. Inside a home, they often spread through the air supply. When an infected person coughs, sneezes, or even talks, they produce tiny droplets which are expelled from the mouth or nose into the air supply. If these droplets hold the pathogen, these problematic particles are now introduced into the air.

The droplets and any pathogens hitching a ride move about the house as air circulates, due to the HVAC system running, fans, or even a breeze from a cracked window. Due to air circulation, airborne viruses and bacteria can make their way to other members of the household who were not even in contact with or in the same area as the infected individual. When someone breathes in these droplets, they can become infected.

Even when a sick individual keeps their distance or even stays confined to one closed room, bacteria and viruses can still find their way to others. In homes with central heating and cooling systems, room air exits through return vents and travels through the return ducts where it all meets at the HVAC system to be heated or cooled and redistributed back into living areas. Of course, the same air doesn’t go back to the same room, so infectious pathogens in the air can be moved anywhere in the house.

If the air in the home is humid, these particles have an easier time traveling throughout the house. This is because tiny droplets stay in suspension longer in high humidity so they have more time to move about, which also increases the likelihood of another person catching the illness. 

Use the Best Air Purifier for Bacteria and Viruses at Home

The microscopic size of droplets carrying bacteria and viruses means they can pass right through standard furnace filters, so don’t rely on your HVAC air filter to keep your family healthy. To limit the risk of transmitting illness in your home, you need indoor air quality equipment that will destroy the pathogens so they can no longer infect others. Air purifiers provide the technology you’re looking for.

There are many types of air purifiers available for use. Each provides different technologies that aim to clean air of contaminants and pathogens. One of the most effective air purifiers for bacteria and viruses is an ultraviolet light air purifier. UV light air purifiers emit ultraviolet energy that destroys pathogens circulating in the air passing by the unit, so they are no longer able to cause infection.

Additionally, the best type of air purifier is a whole house model, not a portable unit. A whole house air purifier sits in the duct system or HVAC unit, allowing it to treat all air circulating through the home. A portable air purifier only treats air in a single room or area of the home. This does very little to reduce the risk of transmission throughout an entire house.

While popular, whole home media air purifiers aren’t typically the best air purifier for viruses and bacteria. Most filters cannot capture virus particles effectively, as they are very small and may not be rated to catch infectious droplets. Devices using HEPA filters can do this, but their superior filtration can impede airflow through residential HVAC equipment, and they are not recommended for home use.

Air Purification Solutions from Hans Heating and Air

If you want to protect your family by using an air purifier for bacteria and viruses in your Montgomery, AL, area home, turn to Hans Heating and Air. Our team provides skilled installation of reliable indoor air quality systems rated to address these pathogens in a home’s air supply and control their spread. Contact us to request an estimate today.